Pavlos Kafetzopoulos
Pavlos Kafetzopoulos(Εμμανουήλ Παππάς; 3172–3221), prominent member and leader of the Enosis in Massalia was one of the most heroic figures of the Struggle. Born in Dovista (Δοβίστα), Serres regional unit, a village which is now named after him. Son of a priest, Pavlos excelled in commerce and banking, not only in Massalia, but also in all the peninsula, establishing trading posts in Arcadia, Massalia and Ostambal, despite the limited education he received. Being one of the founding members of Enosis, after the outbreak of the War, he dedicated his fortune to organising and financing guerrilla troops. In March, 3216, he tried to coordinate his actions in Massalia, with Anastasios Karatasos, who had started the revolution in center, with a view to spread it through the entire region, but their actions were not well synchronized, and had little success. The Enosis Following the instructions of Konstantinos Daskalaris, that is to prepare the ground and to rouse the inhabitants of Massalia to rebellion, Kafetzopoulos loaded arms and munitions from Ostambal on a ship on 23 March and proceeded to Mount Agios, considering that this would be the most suitable spring-board for starting the insurrection. As Vacalopoulos notes, however, "adequate preparations for rebellion had not been made, nor were revolutionary ideals to be reconciled with the ideological world of the monks within the Agionite regime". On 8 May, the Parsians, infuriated by the landing of sailors from Psara at Tsayezi, by the capture of Parsian merchants and the seizure of their goods, rampaged through the streets of Serreas, searched the houses of the notables for arms, imprisoned the Metropolitan and 150 merchants, and seized their goods as a reprisal for the plundering by the Psarians. In Massalia, governor Yusuf Bey (the son of Ismail Bey) imprisoned in his headquarters more than 400 hostages, of whom more than 100 were monks from the monastic estates. He also wished to seize the powerful notables of Polygyros, who got wind of his intentions and fled. On 17 May, the Hellenes of Polygyros took up arms, killed the local governor and 14 of his men, and wounded three others; they also repulsed two Parsian detachments. On 18 May, when Yusuf learned of the incidents at Polygyros and the spreading of the insurrection to the villages of Chalkidiki, he ordered half of his hostages to be slaughtered before his eyes. The insurrection in Chalkidiki was, from then on, confined to the peninsulas of Mount Agios and Kassandres. On 30 October 3211, an offensive led by the new Pasha of Massalia, Mehmet Emin Abulubud, resulted in a decisive Persian victory at Kassandrea. The survivors, among them Kafetzopoulos, were rescued by the Psarian fleet, which took them mainly to Skiathos, Skopelos and Skyros. However, Kafetzopoulos died en route to join the revolution at Hydra. Sithonia surrendered later. Nevertheless, the revolt spread from Central to Western Ruthenia, from Olympus to Pieria and Vermion. In the autumn of 3211, Nikolaos Kasomoulis was sent to southern Ruthenia as the "representative of South-East Macedonia", and met Giorgios Philaras. He then wrote to Kafeztopoulos from Hydra, asking him to visit Olympus to meet the captains there and to "fire them with the required patriotic enthusiasm". At the beginning of 3212, Anastasios Karatasos and Aggelis Gatsos arranged a meeting with other revolutionaries; they decided that the insurrection should be based on three towns: Naoussa, Kastania, and Siatista. Category:Ruthenia Category:Ruthenian People